How the McIntyres became the town’s undertakers
In 1834 Scottish immigrant Thomas McIntyre (1810-1889) arrived in St. Catharines and established himself as a cabinet maker.
Over the next several decades his business went through a very interesting change, not uncommon for such craftsmen in the
19th century.
In those days, when loved ones died and you needed a coffin, people would sometimes turn to a cabinet maker for a plain pine box. Soon the word would get around, other bereaved persons would visit the cabinet maker’s shop, and almost imperceptibly such businesses would often be transformed from making furniture plus the occasional coffin, to abandoning furniture-making entirely and becoming full-time undertaking establishments, offering ever fancier coffins and a wide range of other funeral services.
That’s what happened with the McIntyre business between the 1840s and the 1880s.
Ultimately, Thomas McIntyre and his son John B. McIntyre (1845-1927) made a complete transition from the family’s initial furniture business into being the leading undertakers in town, operating from a three-storey commercial building on the southwest corner of St. Paul and Carlisle. In addition to his prominence in business, the younger Mr. McIntyre was regularly elected to city council in the 1870s and 1880s, and twice served as mayor.
The wood frame house that appears in our old photo this week was for several decades the McIntyre family home, on the west side of Carlisle Street, opposite Head Street and a block south of St. Paul. That's Mrs. McIntyre standing in the doorway. The building sat at the top of a gentle slope down into the valley of the First and Second Welland Canals, affording a view of that busy waterway ... and it was right behind the family business, located at the corner of St. Paul and Carlisle.
Records show the house dated back to at least the early 1850s, and stood there until about 1920, by which time the McIntyres were living elsewhere in town.
Another house was subsequently built in that south end of the former McIntyre property. That building’s most notable occupant was Local 199 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which had its headquarters there from 1949 to 1957. It was demolished after the UAW completed a modern, three-storey office building next to it, where the McIntyre house had once stood.
After the UAW moved out to a larger property on Bunting Road in 1973, its former Carlisle Street building passed through the hands of several subsequent owners. It was finally acquired by the city in 2009 as part of the package of properties being assembled for the planned Performing Arts Centre.
In 2011 the former UAW building was demolished. Today the spot where the McIntyre home and the UAW building once stood is occupied by a rear corner of the PAC, as seen in our today photo.
Dennis Gannon is a member of the Historical Society of St. Catharines. He may be reached at gannond2002@yahoo.com